Day lilies and Emily Dickinson

I took this photo early this morning in my garden, but the accompanying story is the reason for the photo.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson was a Renaissance man during Emily's lifetime. He was a minister, a women's rights activist and had a column in the Atlantic Monthly Journal.

Emily wrote to him periodically trying to get him to publish some of her poetry.   Finally he decided to meet with her in person. She greeted him wearing her traditional white dress with a blue shawl. She also carried two day lilies which she handed to Higginson saying, "These are my introduction."

Later that day Higginson wrote to his wife, "I never was with any one who drained my nerve power so much."

Quote taken directly from The Letters of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson printed by the Harvard University Press.